We are thinking of getting a small safe for the house (fire and thief proof) but there are quite a few choices in the market.

Many of the safes I see at Bunnings or OfficeWorks look to easy to pick up and walk away. My thoughts are that a safe has to be a real hassle to remove because in essence it acts as a one stop shop for a thief - simply grab the safe and run - no need for looking for anything else!

Good question. We are after a safe too. The ones I have seen for home are light, as in 2 blokes (or even 1) could take it and go. Yet the next size up are really quite large and heavy, but really too much for a home safe.

Does anyone have a safe already? I haven't actually looked at one just yet, just perused online and catologues. Do they bolt in anywhere? I was thinking of just having it in the wardrobe as we dont plan on living here forever.

I watched a show once where they pay a theif to break into a house while the owner watches on video from a van outside.

I watched ONE of the thiefs pick up one of those "next size up" safes like you mention with an appliance trolly, dolly, whatever you call it and load it by himself into a moving van.

Don't think cause it's bugger, it's better.

FYI, safes have two ratings. One for fire resistance, and one for breakin. So you could find a safe with 30 minute fire rating, and 60 minute professional safe cracker break in rating.

I reckon the best thing would be to find a safe that is has at least a 30 minute break in rating, and an hour fire rating. Take that safe and build it into your concrete slab. That will keep the home thief from carrying it away, a cracker from getting in before cops get there, and will keep a fire from getting to it since it's in the floor.

I'm very much in the don't keep all "the valuables in the one really obvious place camp". If I was breaking into a house I'd go straight to the WIR and see if I could find the good jewelery, we don't keep any of it near the WIR. Mind you we also have an alarm.

As for fire.....I keep a copy of my important documents at home, and at work, and my brother also has a set....and vice versa. Same with photos. Provided we don't have the same arsonist we should be OK.

I'm not a jewellry person so don't have anything expensive there, other than my wedding/engagement rings which are always on my finger.
I have a timber lockable filing cabinet for papers, it wouldn't be that hard to break into but large to move other than with a sack truck, at any rate the papers are useless to anyone else, I have a copy of my will, kids school reports, old receipts etc, I don't keep cash at home - why would anyone need to in this electronic age? - and my really valuable documents like property titles are at the credit union.

Thanks for the replies all. In my view a safe combined with an alarm is the appropriate solution. Moreover it looks like a safe which can be bolted to the slab may be the way to go. Has anyone found any good web sites specialising in home safes?

Helyn - regarding what one keeps in a safe: for us its mainly jewellery. We dont own anything very special pricewise but we do have some sentimental items which we want to protect from both stealing and fire.

Any safe under around 500kg simply must be securely bolted to a fixed surface (usually the floor). I always advise customers to buy the biggest safe they have room for as the difference between the different sizes is not great (in terms of cost) and once you have somewhere secure and start to look around you will be surprised what you would wish to secure.

Another consideration is what you wish to protect against ? Pure theft resistant units do not offer a great deal of fire protection. Dedicated fire protection safes offer virtually nil theft protection.

As to the ones sold in Bunnings etc, would you really entrust your valuables to sometime like that ?? - really ?